Cushioning the fall of bad news

Angela Harris has been here in the hospital for six hours, awaiting the results of her CT scan. I won’t take responsibility for all of that wait time: complicated CT scans and labs do take a significant amount of time to perform. But she didn’t need to wait the last hour. She was waiting on me — her emergency physician — because I needed to confirm her cancer diagnosis with radiology, arrange some oncology follow-up … and find the most appropriate phraseology for: “You have stage IV cancer, but you don’t meet admission criteria.” I’ve delivered this diagnosis five times this year — and, ironically, always in that room. The cold, narrow one that echoes. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Hospital-Based Medicine Oncology/Hematology Source Type: blogs